t that
I did it to destroy the popular and common idea of apparitions, and to
make it appear ridiculous; and I acknowledge that those who read this
work attentively and without prejudice, will remark in it more
arguments for doubting what the people believe on this point, than
they will find to favor the contrary opinion. If I have treated this
subject seriously, it is only in what regards those facts in which
religion and the truth of Scripture is interested; those which are
indifferent I have left to the censure of sensible people, and the
criticism of the learned and of philosophical minds.

I declare that I consider as true all the apparitions related in the
sacred books of the Old and New Testament; without pretending,
however, that it is not allowable to explain them, and reduce them to
a natural and likely sense, by retrenching what is too marvelous about
them, which might rebut enlightened persons. I think on that point I
may apply the principle of St. Paul;[1] "the letter killeth, and the
Spirit giveth life."

As to the other apparitions and visions related in Christian, Jewish,
or heathen authors, I do my best to discern amongst them, and I exhort
my readers to do the same; but I blame and disapprove the outrageous
criticism of those who deny everything, and make difficulties of
everything, in order to distinguish themselves by their pretended
strength of mind, and to authorize themselves to deny everything, and
to dispute the most certain facts, and in general all that savors of
the marvelous, and which appears above the ordinary laws of nature.
St. Paul permits us to examine and prove everything: _Omnia probate_;
but he desires us to hold fast that which is good and true: _quod
bonum est tenete_.[2]

Footnotes:

[1] 2 Cor. iii. 16.

[2] 1 Thess. v. 21.

ADVERTISEMENT.

Every body talks of apparitions of angels and demons, and of souls
separated from the body. The reality of these apparitions is
considered as certain by many persons, while others deride them and
treat them as altogether visionary.

I have determined to examine this matter, just to see what certitude
there can be on this point; and I shall divide this Dissertation into
four parts. In the first, I shall speak of good angels; in the second,
of the appearance of bad angels; in the third, of the apparitions of
souls of the dead; and in the fourth, of the appearance of living men
to others living, absent, distant, and this unk